Some Mother’s Son

Facebook: it’s America’s favorite place for heaping ridicule on people — especially those accused of crimes. But when you combine that with the irresistible urge to make fun of someone different? Well, that’s when you truly get online magic.

All the local news outlets posted this story about Carlos Rodriguez, a Florida man arrested for attempted murder. This is not something that would normally get national exposure, if not for this: Mr. Rodriguez’s lost part of his skull in an automobile accident, leaving him with a profound deformity.

So what do we have here? News outlets posting a story with no local significance, just for the shock value of the mug shot. Then their audience has the opportunity to make cruel remarks about the man’s appearance.

That’s a sick and sad state of affairs.

Maybe before people write stupid shit about Carlos Rodriguez on Facebook they should consider that he is someone’s son or brother. He’s clearly a guy that’s had some trouble, things that most of us can’t even imagine. Empathy, anyone?

I’ve discussed here before how TV stations and newspapers don’t bother trying to moderate comments on their Facebook pages. And why should they? All those little clicks add up.

2 responses to “Some Mother’s Son”

thank you. We all get juvenile at times, laughing at the misfortune of others. Hopefully we get mature and feel remorse. But for the “news” to put it out just for laugh/shock value is an indication of not only how low they stoop for viewers/clicks but also how lazy they are to not report real stuff. Poison water? Corrupt politicians? Let’s copy and paste instead!

You’re on the money when you talk (in your previous post) about newsrooms not having the staff to do this, but there’s another factor at play: many of the people responsible for these social media pages don’t have the experience or perspective to make judgements about what’s appropriate.

Either that or they’re doing exactly what their more experienced and perceptive bosses want.